• Latest
  • Trending
Moon

A lost piece of moon has been found orbiting in space

November 16, 2021
Dominica: Sports Division Primary Schools boys Division One football competition concluded (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Dominica: Sports Division Primary Schools boys Division One football competition concluded

February 3, 2023
Dominica: PM Skerrit met with IsraAID members; discusses several matters of concern (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Dominica: PM Skerrit met with IsraAID members; discusses several matters of concern

February 2, 2023
'All limitations are self imposed', shares Dr Ernest Hilaire in message (Image courtesy: Facebook)

‘All limitations are self imposed’, shares Dr Ernest Hilaire in message

February 1, 2023
Saint Lucia govt announces recent changes in petroleum, gas prices (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Saint Lucia govt announces recent changes in petroleum, gas prices

January 31, 2023
SALCC held ceremony to announce completion and official opening of the Derek Walcott Library (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

SALCC held ceremony to announce completion and official opening of the Derek Walcott Library

January 30, 2023
'Always do what you're afraid to do', shares Deputy PM Hilaire in message (Image Courtesy: Google)

‘Always do what you’re afraid to do’, shares Deputy PM Hilaire in message

January 28, 2023
Saint Lucia witnesses District Two Fun Walk; over thousand students participates in walk (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Saint Lucia witnesses District Two Fun Walk; over thousand students participates in walk

January 27, 2023
The launch of Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festivals is a resounding success, says Ernest Hilaire (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

The launch of Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festivals is a resounding success, says Ernest Hilaire

January 26, 2023
Saint Lucia Tourism Authority to host official launch of St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Saint Lucia Tourism Authority to host official launch of St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival

January 25, 2023
St Lucia: PM Pierre tables motion to debate, examine recommendations of St Jude Hospital Reconstruction Project (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

St Lucia: PM Pierre tables motion to debate, examine recommendations of St Jude Hospital Reconstruction Project

January 24, 2023
St Lucia: Julien Alfred sets new NCAA record clocking 7.02 to win 60m dash at Martin Luther King Invitational (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

St Lucia: Julien Alfred sets new NCAA record clocking 7.02 to win 60m dash at Martin Luther King Invitational

January 23, 2023
Seeing guests disembarking on Arvia’s call to Saint Lucia is very encouraging: Ernest Hilaire (Image courtesy: Facebook)

Seeing guests disembarking on Arvia’s call to Saint Lucia is very encouraging: Ernest Hilaire

January 21, 2023
Daily Punch
Monday, February 6, 2023
Advertise
  • News
  • Pakistan
  • Featured
  • World
  • Movies
    • Shows & Series
  • Health
    • Diet
    • Food
  • Universe
No Result
View All Result
Daily Punch
No Result
View All Result

A lost piece of moon has been found orbiting in space

by Erica Watson
November 16, 2021
in News, Universe
0

Every April, the faint glimmer of a near-Earth asteroid shimmers in the telescopes of astronomers for a few weeks. While watching the yearly event, a group of astronomers made an unexpected discovery about the small shard: it doesn’t appear to be just any ordinary space rock. It seems to be a shattered chunk of the moon. The Ferris wheel-sized chip is known as Kamo’oalewa in Hawaiian, and proof for its lunar origins was published Thursday in a journal of Earth & Environment.

“I searched through every near-Earth asteroid spectrum we had access to, and nothing matched,” said Ben Sharkey, the paper’s primary author and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. Instead, Sharkey and his colleagues discovered that the rock had a reflected light or spectrum pattern that was strikingly similar to moon rocks returned by NASA’s Apollo missions.

Advertisement

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Dominica: Sports Division Primary Schools boys Division One football competition concluded

Dominica: PM Skerrit met with IsraAID members; discusses several matters of concern

“These difficult observations were made possible by the enormous light gathering capability of the Large Binocular Telescope’s twin 8.4-meter (27.5-foot) telescopes,” said Al Conrad, a staff scientist at the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory and co-author of the paper. However, this isn’t the only evidence of Kamo’oalewa’s lunar roots. The quasi-satellite, a subtype of near-Earth asteroids that circle both the sun and the Earth, travels around our planet with an odd tilt, which is why it only appears once a year in the night sky.

In truth, its identification as a Moon fragment was entirely accidental, as are most space discoveries. Scientists discovered that reflected light from Kamo’oalewa resembled lunar pebbles from NASA’s Apollo missions while scanning space with the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in Arizona.

“It is exceedingly implausible that a common near-Earth asteroid would spontaneously shift into a quasi-satellite orbit like Kamo’oalewa’s,” said Renu Malhotra, a planetary sciences professor at the University of Arizona, in a statement. She observes that the piece will not remain in this orbit for long. Malhotra believes it arrived in its current place 500 years ago and that its trajectory will shift in roughly 300 years.

Even with such sophisticated technology and comprehensive orbital research, the crew had a long road ahead of them to discover Kamo’oalewa’s secret. Because of the faint orb’s occasional appearance, they had to build their data sets over several years to create a complete image of the alien object – and locate enough proof to corroborate its lunar origins. “We questioned ourselves to death,” Vishnu Reddy, a co-author of the research from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said in a statement.

The project began in 2016 and lasted a few years; however, due to COVID-19 constraints, the team missed the asteroid’s arrival window in 2020. Now, in 2021, they’re finally confident enough in the quantity of material they’ve acquired to reveal Kamo’oalewa’s extraordinary history. Sharkey said, “We received much-needed follow-up observations this spring and exclaimed, “Wow, it’s genuine.” The moon is easier to describe than other concepts.”

Only one thing remains unanswered: how did Kamo’oalewa break away from the moon? Because this is the first near-Earth asteroid to have lunar characteristics, it’s unknown if the space rock is a fluke or whether additional moon pieces are lying in the solar system waiting to be discovered.

Advertisement

 

Tags: ApolloLost PieceMoonNASASpaceSpectrum
ShareTweetPin

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

No Result
View All Result

Recent News

Dominica: Sports Division Primary Schools boys Division One football competition concluded (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Dominica: Sports Division Primary Schools boys Division One football competition concluded

February 3, 2023
Dominica: PM Skerrit met with IsraAID members; discusses several matters of concern (Image Courtesy: Facebook)

Dominica: PM Skerrit met with IsraAID members; discusses several matters of concern

February 2, 2023
'All limitations are self imposed', shares Dr Ernest Hilaire in message (Image courtesy: Facebook)

‘All limitations are self imposed’, shares Dr Ernest Hilaire in message

February 1, 2023

Pakistan Daily News Provider

Recent News

  • Dominica: Sports Division Primary Schools boys Division One football competition concluded
  • Dominica: PM Skerrit met with IsraAID members; discusses several matters of concern
  • ‘All limitations are self imposed’, shares Dr Ernest Hilaire in message
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Feedback
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Editorial Policy

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
    • Home – Layout 1
    • Home – Layout 2
    • Home – Layout 3
  • Government
  • Economy
  • Entertainment
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Leisure